Golem 7's last call

Burning pain. Static, then an unending ring.

Ash blinked a few times, registering the warmth of blunt impacts spreading across his body. He catalogued the sensations: pain, noise, pressure, nothing he hadn’t felt before.

Ash planted a hand and let the armor haul him upright. He heard more static.

His squad lay before him.

Unmoving.

The HUD confirmed what was already obvious, but Ash felt nothing. Just the checklist. Find Golem two. Locate the package.

He pried it free: a black box, featureless except for its digital display and the marking ‘MPC’.

The timer ticked down.

Beneath it, another line blinked green steadily:

Meson Containment Stable.

“Golem Squad report!” The Captain’s voice demanded, cutting through the static.

“We’ve lost suit connection with Golem Squad,” Another voice crackled in, annoyance clear.

Ash ignored them, his focus narrowing to the digital display. Numbers ticked down. His blood went cold, a reflexive chill cutting through the numbness. He barely registered the surge of voices on the comms.

“This is Golem Seven,” Ash announced as he mounted the device to the back of his powered armor.

“Golem Seven, what’s your status?” A man’s voice cut through as the chatter died.

“Device is live, repeat the Device is live,” Ash stated, as he began to understand what was coming.

“Golem Seven, proceed to evac point bravo”.

“Negative, Captain,” Ash stated. “I still have to deliver the package.”

“Understood, Corporal, Godspeed.” The Captain stated, then, after a moment, “All units start a full pullback.”

This plan has really gone to hell, hasn’t it? Ash wondered to himself as he looked at his target. A massive tower, and between him and it?

An army of Krultin.

Ash started forward, his armor’s jets turning steps into leaping bounds. His boots thudded against concrete, squishing the dead Krultin underfoot. Tuning out the pulsing timer on his HUD.

One of the bodies jerked upright.

Too quick for a human.

Bug-like eyes snapped toward him.

Then its ash-grey body exploded under a roaring burst from Ash’s heavy rifle.

His eye flicked to the ammo counter and over the timer. He wished he had more of both.

Old words, old words uttered by his teacher, the man who guided him down this path, echoed through his mind, “Ask me for anything but time”.

Ash felt something clang off his armor, waking him from his reverie.

Krultin troops opened fire.

Their weapons sparked uselessly off his armor.

Ash’s rifle roared.

Bodies fell.

That's when he saw the defensive wall. No way over. No way around. Not enough time.

“This is Golem Seven, any air support still overhead!” He called out, already turning on the targeting laser mounted on his helmet.

Static answered for a moment, the air feeling heavier until a voice broke through.

“This is Phobos four, we have a payload sufficient for one run. Paint your target Golem Seven,” a pilot's voice crackled through the static.

The targeting laser had already painted the wall, and a howling wind rushed from above, making Ash look up as the massive V-wing bomber went screaming past.

Shapes hurtling down from it towards the wall.

Ash grinned. It had been a long time since he’d had a V-wing drop ordnance this close.

Then he slid, bracing as the bombs impacted.

The shockwave nearly tossed him backwards as the wall began to crumble and fall.

Ash barely saw Phobos four vanish into the distance.

Ash leaped, climbing and dodging as rubble tumbled down around him.

“The Krultin aren’t expecting us this deep in their territory; resistance should be minimal. Stick to the plan.” Those words echoed as Ash cleared the wall; the admiral was wrong, dead wrong, they were plenty ready.

Something exploded nearby in a white flash, causing the rubble under Ash to break, sending Ash rolling down the backside of the wall.

Ash rolled to a stop and threw himself to his feet, just in time for something to scream past him and explode against the wall.

He turned and stared at the silvery amorphous blob that the Krultin called a main battle tank, its main gun slowly locking onto him.

Then something howled and tore through the sky, a lance of light, and the Krultin’s tank split in two, the top erupting, flying high into the sky.

Ash started forward as static filled his helmet again. Another Krultin Tank moved into the main thoroughfare, and another air-rending projectile struck it, causing a jet of plasma to shoot blindingly into the sky.

An orbital cannon, Ash realised as he passed the burning tanks.

“This is DS-201, we’re just overhead, leave the tanks to us, Golem Seven”.

Ash pushed ever onwards; he could feel the strain on his body. He could smell the ozone and sweat permeating the suit's padding. A reminder, more like a statement.

“A lotta veterans call these mobile coffins, don’t let that get to ya.” The voice of a long-forgotten drill instructor echoed through Ash’s mind as another of the tanks was torn asunder, its main gun crashing down onto a group of Krultin infantry.

He ran past it, the heat of the fusion bottle adding to the already murky heat of his suit. Ash’s eyes flicked over, checking his suit’s temp. It’d make it. Then he saw the timer, and the air felt cold for a moment, and he swore his heart had stopped.

“Anything but time,” Ash muttered to himself as he pressed into the lines, rifle roaring, armor clanging, and the sound of meat being smashed aside by his metal fist.

His rifle clicked empty, and he reached for a new mag. He hadn’t realized he’d ripped through his entire supply.

One of the Krultin hefted a long stick, which amounted to one of their rocket launchers.

Before Ash knew what happened, he had hurled his rifle at the infantryman, and a blast of intense red light met the rifle halfway.

Ash flew forward from the resulting explosion; he slid barely catching himself, as he watched the Krultin fly past him, in several pieces.

For a moment, everything seemed oddly peaceful as he looked up at the tower, no more bouncing rings from bullets, no screaming battlecries.

He walked forward towards the front of the tower, its oddly shaped arches bursting into blue light as the front door slid open.

He stepped into the tower and saw hundreds of smaller cowering Krultin staring at him.

He pushed through them, not noticing the squish when one failed to move, his eye looking at the timer, not much left now.

He found what he was looking for, what they considered an elevator. The doors of it slid open, not just an elevator, a cargo elevator. Designed for heavy loads.

He stepped on and listened to it creak. He clicked the button that should have been the top floor and stepped out. Letting it ascend out of his way.

After a moment, he stabbed his armored hands into the door. Slowly and with the sound of screaming servos, the door opened.

He unlocked the package from his back and checked the display. The timer and the containment at the bottom.

He shuddered as the meson containment indicator blinked yellow.

Yellow was bad enough.

Then he looked down, into the shaft, seeing darkness for what seemed like an eternity, and he knew it was deep enough.

He tossed the ‘Meson Planet Cracker’ into the dark maw of the planet and listened as it struck the walls of the shaft. Metal rang faintly as it fell deeper into the hive the Krultin called home..

Ash turned to see Krultin soldiers filing into the room, horror in their eyes at the sight of Ash’s armored bulk.

They raised their rifles for a moment, then one shook its head. One by one, rifles fell to their slings.

Some bowed their heads, chittering prayers in their own tongue. Others pulled the smaller ones close.

Ash turned towards them and flicked, turning on both his comms and loud hailer.

“Package delivered, and see you on the flip side,”

Ash shut off his comms.

The crackle of static still filled his helmet. Hundreds of other armored infantry were saying prayers or begging for help or time.

They, much like Ash himself, wouldn’t be going home.

“Anything but time, right, Teach?” Ash asked no one

As thunder rolled through the tower. The world itself began quaking.

Iridescent Light erupted from the shaft behind him.